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Comment by dave2000 | Hacker News Reader

dave2000

And the fact that Android is way more popular than iOs shows that most people simply don't know or care what version of Android they have because it makes almost no difference to how the apps they use work. If you care then you should have spent a few minutes research and bought a Nexus or a device from a manufacturer who is more prompt with updates.

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Sure. There's only one manufacturer who stays on top of updates the way Apple does with iOS - Google (or whomever they contract).

And this year, the only offering from Google are two phones (neither of which I need) or that tablet (which is larger than I wanted).

I did my research and there was exactly jack and shite all.

So then, I settled and went with cheap, thinking how bad can this be?

Samsung. Can they do anything right?

The fact Android is way more popular than iOS can be used to support any conjecture about user preferences.

The ASP of Android devices is far lower than that of iOS devices.

Android is popular because it appeals to price sensitive consumers who are by far the majority. IOS sells mostly to people who are not primarily price sensitive.

That's it.

I don't know what ASP is and attempts to explain away how Android is far more popular than iOs are neither interesting nor relevant to this discussion (how did Apple get a massive head start if most consumers are price concious?); the fact is, if people were upset about Android updates it would result in people not using Android (which is manifestly not the case) and it would be addressed by Google (which it is not doing).

If the people are upset with their Ford, they'll buy BMW! Nope, doesn't make any sense!

No, but it you change BMW to another make of car that doesn't have the same level of stigma it makes perfect sense.

How about Mercedes, or Porsche?

ASP is Average Selling Price. If you don't know what it is, how can you know whether it is relevant or not?

Apple got a massive head start because there were plenty of non price sensitive consumers to sell to.

Android overtook iOS because there are many more people who can't afford Apple's prices.

It doesn't matter whether people care about the shortcomings of Android, such as the update problems. If they can't afford Apple's higher prices, they will by Android instead.

So you're saying it's the fault of consumers if they get phones that won't receive updates?

No, it's the fault of the manufacturers (and indirectly google, who take take any number of actions to coerce manufacturers to provide updates either more speedily or at all).

It's the user's problem, but for the majority of them it's not a problem. At all.

But for the handful who DO want the updates then yes, it's on them to pick wisely before spending hundreds of pounds on a phone given what we know about the Android ecosystem.

I agree, it's is not a problem that impacts users immediately, otherwise those phones wouldn't sell. The problem is security: an OS that does not receive patches is an insecure OS. That affects users in the long run, and it's more consequences that not being able to run the latest apps.

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